DEDICATED CD PLAYER $1K AND UNDER, THOUGHTS?

Actually, the Creek Audio CD 50 is the best you can get for around your budget. It has dual Wolfson DAC, one for each channel, multiple digital inputs and great reviews. MRSP $1,400 but you can find deals for around $1000. 

The Vault solution has a lot going for it. I assume you can RIP your CDs as you listen to them. If not there will be a few minutes to RIP, then you can RIP next one in and start listening. From my experience, the internal DAC works fine (use a better one if you want). The BlueSound software will organize your collection, and with little work you can get most of the album art and metadata. Try Roon for an even more involving metadata experience. Plug in a hard drive to the Vault to back up your collection. Done.

newly released Rega Apollo lists at $1095...

If you don’t want to spend the money on a Vault, their are plenty of DIY solutions that will accomplish the same thing. Currently I am RIPing my CDs on my computer, then storing my collection on a networked 2T external drive (I’m at about 150 GB, 50+ FLAC redbook CDs). I do occasional manual backups on a spare 500GB drive, which works fine for now. Use Airplay to send stream to Apple TV or Airport Express (Mac user, you can do the same stuff with PCs). AEX>DAC>output to stereo. You can go AEX>stereo too, but a better DAC may be a good idea, depending on your system.

It’s hard to figure out why anyone would want a dedicated CD player when these options are available. The only thing I can think of is that the physical act of selecting a CD, manually inserting it and looking at the printed material as you listen is essential to your experience. If that’s the case, then I would still buy a Vault instead of a new CD player, and just pretend it is a CD player.

I second the Rotel recommendation. They are as good as it gets for a very reasonable price. I have both and think the Rotel beats the Marantz even though it has less features